By Marin Murray, News Editor
The women’s cross country team finished runner-up, while the men’s team placed fourth at the Great American Conference championship meet in Monticello on Saturday, Oct. 26. The teams will race in the Central Region championship meet in Joplin, MO, on Saturday, Nov. 8.
“I think that both teams ran a very good race,” head cross country coach Steve Guymon said. “They laid their hearts out there. The results probably didn’t come out the way we were hoping, but I don’t have any regrets or disappointments.” Senior Kate Nachtigal led the scoring on the women’s side, placing fourth with a time of 17:51.83 for the five-kilometer race and earning first-team all-conference honors along with senior Alli Hylkema, who placed sixth. Senior Elise Knight and juniors Lucy Holden, Blair Turpen and Emelia Eriksson earned second-team all-conference honors for the Tigers as well.
“It was really good,” Nachtigal said. “It was my best race so far in all of my cross country career. I have always wanted to break 18 [minutes], and that was the goal for the day.” The team, which averaged a time of 18:14 and finished with a score of 64, placed second to Arkansas Tech, only falling by a margin of five points. “The team’s performance was great,” Nachtigal said. “We had a lot of seniors leave last year, so we had a lot of juniors that got to step up this season, and they did great.”
On the men’s side, standout freshman Caleb Greenwich led the charge, placing seventh overall and earning first-team all-conference honors and the program’s first-ever Freshman of the Year award in the process. He also set the program record for the eight-kilometer distance. “I’m proud of Caleb,” Guymon said. “He won Freshman of the Year and competed really well. He just sticks his nose in there; it doesn’t matter who he is running against.” The Tigers finished in fourth place with a cumulative score of 110, as six other runners finished in the top 30.
“The team did really good,” Greenwich said. “I’m proud of how everyone came in and did exactly what we said we wanted to do.” In addition to the athletic accomplishments earned, Hylkema, Knight, senior Abby McElhaney, and juniors Noah Embrey, Gabriel Greenwich and Zach Wigginton also received Elite Scholar Athlete awards for maintaining a 4.0 cumulative GPA.
“Our goal for the region meet is to place higher than we’ve ever placed before,” Guymon said. “I think the highest we’ve placed on the women’s side is 10th, and 15th is the highest on the guys’ side.”
Both teams have already turned their focus to the Central Region championship meet in two weeks and will look to make a statement on the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course in Joplin.
